Top Solano leaders target coordination on key issues

Print Article: "
Article Last Updated: 11/17/2005 06:13 AM


Top Solano leaders target coordination on key issues

By Reporter Staff
TheReporter.Com

Top leaders from every Solano County city and the entire Board of Supervisors agreed to give political peace a chance Wednesday night in Benicia, gathering for the first summit of the City County Coordinating Council.
Resurrecting a joint agency that collaborated on key issues facing the county from 1991 to 2000, the new version kicked off a new era with an ambitious work plan that addresses land use, transportation, farmland preservation and a host of less controversial topics.
The council comprises each mayor and the five county supervisors.
Chairwoman Mary Ann Courville, mayor of Dixon, kicked off the first meeting which was held in the Benicia Clocktower, attended by more than 60 city and county officials, from councilmembers to planners to fire and police chiefs. A host of county staffers and the Solano Transportation Authority participated.
The council's 'purpose statement' calls for the group to come together regularly to 'discuss, coordinate and resolve' issues such as land use, planning, duplication of services and to respond to the local impact of decisions made on the state and federal levels.
The work plan includes:
� Better managing federal mandates on housing and looking for cost savings or program enhancements;
� Considering a joint platform to lobby for and against legislation;
� Coordinating transportation projects and new urban development;
� Reviewing the options for a proposed regional park district; and
� Securing funding and technology to establish an emergency communication network that ties together police, fire and emerge"